Les Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Les Bowen has covered the Eagles since 2002. Before that, he covered the Flyers for 13 years. He came to the Daily News from the Charlotte Observer in May 1983, just as the Sixers were winning the NBA championship. He thought, "Gosh, this sort of thing must happen all the time here."

The Eagles reconvened from their bye week Monday, and though practice was closed, indications are nothing changed on the team's offensive line, which is a mild surprise, in the wake of a dreadful performance against the Lions in the last outing.

Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who remains the starter despite 13 turnovers in six games, said he never thought he might be replaced by rookie Nick Foles during Eagles coach Andy Reid's bye week review.

"It was never a time when I didn't know exactly if I was going to be the starter or not," said Vick, who said he neither expected nor got a call from Reid affirming he remained in that role. "Quite frankly, I know what I can do when I'm out there and I know what has to happen when I'm out there on the football field. That's just my approach now, to go out and get the job done, and we'll see what happens."

Vick was pressed on having certainly been aware of speculation during the bye.

"You just gotta stand tall," he said. "It's not the first time I've been in this situation. I understand the most important thing is for me to go out there and continue to do my job, and try to help this football team by winning games."

During the bye week, Vick said, he "thought about a lot of what-ifs -- what could have happened, what should have happened, what didnt happen. A lot of things you have no control over. You just gotta keep pushing in this game, keep pushing and keep playing."

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Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson got two phone calls Friday, one from Andy Reid and another from general manager Howie Roseman, telling Patterson the NFL had cleared him to start practicing.

Patterson said he's hoping to be game-ready in "a week and a half, maybe two weeks." The Eagles have three weeks to either add Patterson to the 53-man roster or put him on IR for the season. Unless he has a setback, Patterson seems very likely to play. He underwent surgery in January to untangle blood vessels in his brain that had caused a seizure.

Patterson said he did scout team work Monday.

"I'm just happy to put a helmet on, to not be out the whole season, to get to play with these guys," Patterson said.